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Don't see much discussion on a Blood Mage search here.

Anyone have any good insight to a build? I've always played a typical "good" character but just really got hit with some Hex's and thought that might be a neat twist for a Blood Mage "evil" character.

The way I played a Blood Mage (solo) in DA was to actually grab the Arcane Warrior specialization (which I went for before the Blood Mage) and then put only one point in the tree. That way, you're able to use strength oriented items, which is what helps you boost defense to high levels, along with your spells. When you reach Awakening, take Keeper as soon as you can. That specialization is AMAZING.

Honestly, I find that there isn't much of a difference from playing a normal mage, but I assume you're asking about spell selection. Also, put all your points into magic, though it's okay to have your Cunning go up to 16 for the purposes of maximizing your persuasion skill.

Here's what I went for:

(Base)
*Arcane Bolt
*Arcane Shield
*Staff Focus
*Arcane Mastery

(Arcane Warrior)
*Combat Magic

**(Keeper)**
**One with Nature
**Thornblades
**Replenishment
**Nature's Vengeance

(Creation)
*Heal
**Rejuvinate (Awakening)
**Regeneration (Awakening)

*Glyph of Paralysis
*Glyph of Warding
*Glyph of Repulsion

*Spell Whisp
*Grease
*Spell Bloom
*Stinging Swarm

(Entropy)
*Vulnerability Hex
*Affliction Hex
*Misdirection Hex
*Death Hex

*Drain Life
*Death Magic
*Curse of Mortality
*Death Cloud

(Primal)
*Winter's Grasp
**Frost Weapons (Optional) - This is useless if you're soloing.
**Cone of Cold (Optional) - You waste one point getting this, but you're better off using Paralysis Explosion.

*Lightning

(Spirit)
*Mana Drain
*Mana Cleanse
*Spell Might

*Walking Bomb
*Death Syphon
*Virulent Walking Bomb

*Mind Blast
*Force Field

If you want to be a very powerful mage being a blood mage is a must(you will never have mana problems:use up all your mana-->switch to blood mage mode(forgot the name of the spell) you can cast spells until you get to very low HP--->deactivate the blood mage mode and heal up yourself to full with just 1 spell--->go back into blood mage mode and keep repeating this(sooner or later your mana pool will regen to full too).

Being a blood mage is not necessarily evil(my char was a good mage),in the beginning Duncan tells you in the mage tower that wardens must use every tool to stop the blight(including blood magic) no matter what the price is so not you will be the first blood mage grey warden.Being good doesnt mean that you should do what the templars tell you(it is as close to slavery as it can get),you fight for a good cause and if the slavers have problems with what you do they can try to stop you.My plan was freeing all the mages when I get powerful enough and killing every interfering templar(sadly it was not an option) and I dont think that this would be evil(they should hunt down the abominations,they have no right to torture all the living mages just because they have a small chance to become evil monsters).

I agree with childofbhaal being a bloodmage doesn't equate to being evil necessarily. As long as you don;t sacrifice others for your own benefit and summon demons, which of course you can;t actually do.

Greagor and the other Templars you meet are all contemptible one way or another, and of course completely useless and corrupt.

You can be a powerful mage without being a bloodmage, but having a 'reserve tank' of mana doesn't hurt, and of course bloodwound is a very useful spell, but Storm of the Century and mass paralysis rule.

I played a Blood Mage on my first playthrough. I have to say that Blood Wound was amazing. The last spell in the chain does work correctly, kind, but the AI is severely lacking and you are better off using it as a damage spell. I was able to control boss-level creatures with it before.

You really don't need to spend any points in Willpower. I found that you have enough mana anyway, especially once you hit Awakening.

In regards to Paralysis Explosion and Storm of the Century, I found that I barely had enough time to case Death Cloud and Death Hex before the paralysis wore off on a boss type character. Wouldn't the duration of Storm of the Century's cast time be much longer, thus actually lasting longer than Paralysis Explosion (which I'm almost positive lasts longer than Mass Paralysis)?

galraen wrote:I agree with childofbhaal being a bloodmage doesn't equate to being evil necessarily. As long as you don;t sacrifice others for your own benefit and summon demons, which of course you can;t actually do..

And how does one become a blood mage? By sacrificing others for your own benefit.. or wasting time and money on awakenings

Since im in this discussion already.. I dont see why would you take a keeper over battlemage, who turns every fight into a silly one nanosecond long joke. On the other hand i didn't play as keeper, and i killed the NPC-keeper, so i might not know the potential, still Battlemage / Bloodmage / Healer carried me through whole Awakening, WH and GOA without a single reload on nightmare (solo for awa) and only GOA caught me off guard with seven billion hurl boulder centered on me in every fight.

Obviously AW is much better than Shealer, and if keeper fits better than battlemage... I fail to see the point of even playing such combo in that case, AW breaks the game in half.. On the other hand, i fail to see the point of playing awa at all.. Regardless of class you pick, you don't die, ever. Ever-ever? Yeah.

I better not write an Awakenings review, it'd be a 4 tops..

edit : Since you're there already, i'd take Mass Rejuv even for solo play. With MR and Spellboom + battlemage, you can skip bloodmagic and still have endless mana. Especially with those stupidly overpowered items in Awa. Blood wound is a great spell, esp for Caulthrien, but in Awa you have other, even stronger tools. And for Caulthrien you can work around having Bw by running back, and only she and two goons will follow you.. Ahh the stupid AI.

Stworca wrote:And how does one become a blood mage? By sacrificing others for your own benefit..

It ain't necessarily so, not if your coercion + cunning or strength is high enough, you can also get some extra 'benefits' with a bit of intimidation/sweet talk!

galraen wrote:It ain't necessarily so, not if your coercion + cunning or strength is high enough, you can also get some extra 'benefits' with a bit of intimidation/sweet talk!

She was too cute to intimidate her.. Besides, i had to unlock blood mage via awakenings, becuase every time i was in veil i just had to let my char sleep with her. I'm a role player above everything else (a role player that skips dialogue ), and only a rock would resist THIS offer.

Edit : Unless i knew when the cutscene would blacken out...

I was able to solo Dragon Age (from the origin story to the end of Awakening) with an Arcane Warrior/Keeper/Battlemage.

I thought that Battlemage was too mana intensive, though I primarily choose the specialization for Stoic and occasionally for Hand of Winter.

Anyway, what makes the Keeper so amazing is, well, ALL of its skills.

*One With Nature: Makes you unable to move and does damage overtime to anyone that enters your greenery. Because you are rooted to the ground, it makes you immune to a dragon's grabs, and (in my experience) resistant to an ogre's grab and your general overwhelm.

*Thornblades: In my experience, this skill does an area of effect damage of about three hundred and provides knockback. The damage is physical and the range at which it hits opponents is huge.

*Replenishment: Essentially, this heals you every time your opponent takes nature damage from One With Nature, which is enough to keep you at full health when you are surrounded by normal and a few elite opponents. I'm pretty sure that it heals depending on any nature damage though, so technically, using Stringing Swarm would allow you to heal more. I'll need to check on this later. But yes, this talent has allowed me to be surrounded by Childers and take an Overwhelm from each one of them and keep at full health.

*Nature's Vengeance: This is another area of effect spell. In my experience, it dealt well over five hundred damage, which was enough to kill all non-boss monsters around me.

galraen wrote:I agree with childofbhaal being a bloodmage doesn't equate to being evil necessarily. As long as you don;t sacrifice others for your own benefit and summon demons, which of course you can;t actually do.

Greagor and the other Templars you meet are all contemptible one way or another, and of course completely useless and corrupt.

You can be a powerful mage without being a bloodmage, but having a 'reserve tank' of mana doesn't hurt, and of course bloodwound is a very useful spell, but Storm of the Century and mass paralysis rule.

I do not understand what the fuss is about Storm of the Century. Sure it deals a lot of party unfriendly AoE damage and does some nice CC but takes a lot of time to setup thanks to the long casting times and is totally party unfriendly. Best used against groups of archers but you must either cc them first or let the tank grab aggro and get him out when you start the combo.
Fireball on the other hand as an initiator has a much lower CD and doesn't need 10 seconds setup and followed up with Earthquake or Blood Wound simply wins most fights against standard and elite mobs.
Really people overlook Fireball a lot imho.

I myself got a full primal specced blood mage not only for the achievment but also because the tree in itself synergizes wonderfully. You can make so many cc chains and combinations its not even funny.
Fireball is probably the most overpowered spell in the entire game as an AoE spell, has a low mana cost, very low CD, knocks down and deals a lot of damage and has a large radius and is instant.
After that you can setup with spells like Earthquake, Cone of Cold, Blood Wound or Blizzard after that feel free to unleash your AoE hell since close to no normal or elite mob will be able to move much after that and in a matter of 10-20 seconds most are dead or close to death.
Petrify is great CC against bosses and most drop to 75% in the first 5-10 seconds while they are petrified.

I am going for Spell Might after level 16 now but only because beside Crushing Prison there isn't much else which I really need, my mage is very strong.
Heck I do not even need the second specialization.

One tip, do not invest attribute points into anything else than magic unless you want to use Spell Shield a lot, then you need some points in cunning but 6 points for 16 suffice. If you go to the Circle of Magi after Ostagar you can save some of those points too because of the free points you get in the fade. I think you get like 4-5 points of Cunning there.
Cunning of course just enough to get max coercion if you want to have a diplomatic mage.
I put 2 points into Willpower but only because I wanted an even number. I like those. *g
And don't be afraid to use blood sacrifice alot, I do it paired with Morrigan and thanks to Vulnarability Hex, Drain Life, Insect Swarm and Heal she gets the points back in no time.

Edit: I do not have Awakening.

PART of the problem is that Storm of the Century really needs two casters.

Morrigan & Wynne from Origins
Velanna & Anders from Awakening

One of the above with a PC mage. If both casters have Spell might active, one can cast Tempest, the other can cast Blizzard, thus halving the cast time for the spell combo.


This is part of the reason that I play with a party that includes a Fighter, a Rogue, and a Mage, in addition to the PC and Dog (when available due to extra Dog slot mod).

When playing solo, however, it's just part of the cost. 6 of one, a half-dozen of the other. Player's choice, even in this.

It doesn't need two casters, what it does need is practise and learning how to 'lead' the target; never cat it on them but between you and them and always start with Blizzard. the blizzard knocks any enemies trying to get to you off their feet usually and gives you time to launch Tempest. Make sure your meat shields are held, and if the enemy need encouragement to enter send your tank into the storm, once the enemy start towards him, move him back again, he can take it.

I've run a mage most of the way through the game using SotC as my main weapon, accompanied by two meatshields and Leliana (she used arrow of slaying on any big dudes that looked like getting through) so I know it works.

PS One does of course make use of the other elemental spells, but usually started the ball rolling with SotC. Fireball is indeed a very good spell, firestorm though is a pain as seeing what's going on inside it can be impossible. Don't like the 'Earth' tree though, the only spell I found useful was stonefist against frozen enemies, and Leliana can take care of that with criticals, and one does need slots for Spell Might and Mana Clash as well as blood magic and (my preference) Spirit Healer.

I've played multiple mages with all of the various spells.

Bloodmage Arcane Warrior combo pretty much rocks them all, the additional Awakenings classes are OK.

Storm of the Century is a fantastic combo. It's all down to the radius effect, which spell you cast first, and how high your Magic skill is.

First: plow just about every point into Magic for your character.

Second: Have your party stand back "halted" from their portrait buttons.

Third: zoom-out and figure-out your placement for SotC relative to your opponents.

Fourth: Lob Blizzard almost in the center of the determined area, while making sure to keep your distance from alerting opponents.

Fifth: Move back from position slightly and cast Tempest.

Sixth: Move back a little more once SotC starts up.


It's pretty much all down to your Magic level. If it's about as high as it can get then every opponent freezes.


On the other hand I find Inferno and Glyph of Repulsion can be *more* effective in many instances. This really depends on if you have a defensible location where you can use the Glyph. i.e. hallways or doorways - just Zoom-out and figure out where you are going to place Inferno, then cast it and then immediately cast Glyph of Repulsion in front of your character if you are near Inferno, or at a doorway to keep them from leaving the room, etc.. (..and of course the first and second steps for StoC apply as well).

One of the things working for your favor on several of the Area Effects spells is that you don't always have to be in the direct line of sight. Zoom-out and see if you can target areas your characters shouldn't really be able to target. Rogues are particularly helpful here with the "Stealth" line of talents. Having them sneak to where you are going to cast the spell as an additional form of extending your targeting ability (..though obviously moving them back from the area effect).

galraen wrote:It doesn't need two casters, what it does need is practise and learning how to 'lead' the target; never cat it on them but between you and them and always start with Blizzard. the blizzard knocks any enemies trying to get to you off their feet usually and gives you time to launch Tempest. Make sure your meat shields are held, and if the enemy need encouragement to enter send your tank into the storm, once the enemy start towards him, move him back again, he can take it.

I've run a mage most of the way through the game using SotC as my main weapon, accompanied by two meatshields and Leliana (she used arrow of slaying on any big dudes that looked like getting through) so I know it works.

PS One does of course make use of the other elemental spells, but usually started the ball rolling with SotC. Fireball is indeed a very good spell, firestorm though is a pain as seeing what's going on inside it can be impossible. Don't like the 'Earth' tree though, the only spell I found useful was stonefist against frozen enemies, and Leliana can take care of that with criticals, and one does need slots for Spell Might and Mana Clash as well as blood magic and (my preference) Spirit Healer.

I use the earth tree all the time. Rock Armor is active all the time and adds 13 to my armor at around 65 magic which is quite good.
The least used tree by me is the lightning tree especially Chain Lightning which seems to deal relatively low damage.

Heretics, solo the game as a mage without arcane warrior class

The only time i've found storm of century useful was in Caulthrien fight, because you could pre-set it. On other occasions the enemies won't stand in it while you kite.

I play it on hard and the difficulty feels about right for me. Some fights needed some reloads but otherwise it plays smooth but never easy enough to feel boring.

SotC biggest problem is the long preparation time and it's easily interrupted and on top of that not party friendly.

I found Shockwave to be hard to use actually and rarely useful. Best combination is still the Shatters with Cone of Cold/Petrify and Stone Fist. Can take out even elites with it relatively often albeit its not a sure bet.

Sleep with Nightmare and Horror is quite potent too.

Stworca wrote:
The only time i've found storm of century useful was in Caulthrien fight, because you could pre-set it. On other occasions the enemies won't stand in it while you kite.

It's not a "hit and run" type of spell, nor are the other area effect spells. Rather it's a first-strike type of spell.

Try using the formula I presented.

Takes too long to setup. Fireball -> Blood Wound -> mop up the controlled enemies is more effective most of the time and with much less risk hurting your party members.